EICC’s sustainability programme

Energy and waste management

The Centre has a policy to source products and services locally, and to ensure that suppliers also follow an equivalent sustainability policy.

Efforts are made to reduce energy consumption and wastage. The Centre has an excellent track record in waste management, with less than 1 per cent of waste collected on the premises sent to landfill. Since 2013 the EICC has also reduced its carbon emissions by 50 per cent. Food wastage is minimized, and the Centre donates regularly to community food banks.

Mitigation of environmental impacts

Carbon mitigation will play a significant role in the City of Edinburgh Council’s efforts to become a zero carbon city by 2030. In support of this, EICC is involved in an innovative project to restore peatland in Caithness and Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands.

EICC has partnered with RSPB Scotland, part of the UK’s largest nature conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, on an innovative scheme to restore the peatlands. Scotland has Europe’s largest blanket bog, which is home to countless species of plants and animals. This landscape is also vital in the fight against climate change. Peatlands are the world’s largest terrestrial carbon store, and their restoration has been shown to be more effective at capturing carbon than tree planting initiatives.

The project aims to restore 250 000 ha of land in the Flow Country area over the next 25 years.

The partnership with RSPB Scotland gives our clients the opportunity to mitigate negative environmental impacts associated with holding events. The equivalent of £1 per delegate per day, or 50p per dinner guest, spent with EICC will be ringfenced purely for Peatland Restoration in the north of Scotland.

Access to the Centre

EICC is located within easy walking distance of most of the hotels generally used by conference delegates, and is also served well by the tram network. There is easy access without the need to use taxis or cars from most key parts of the city, and from the airport.

Every event hosted at EICC, regardless of size, receives a detailed and bespoke Event Impact Report. These reports describe the event’s specific environmental, economic and social impacts, both positive and negative. Multiple factors, including plastic use, energy consumption and waste management, will be used to calculate the environmental impact of events held at EICC. For carbon footprint, there are five main streams that will be measured: energy, waste, water, travel, and procurement.